A Change of Pace

So, I'm wrapping up the last bits of the T3 construction project. After that is done I need to figure out what is next. I've been enjoying the WH life these last few months but I've started to miss my other activities such as tech II manufacturing, trading and the ability to just relax and run some missions. You end up so isolated in j-space that it feels the world just moves on without you. There is comfort in that but it's also nice to step outside and feel the pulse of New Eden. Who knows, maybe I'll even start recruiting.

Operation: Get Money. Get Paid.

So, I'll start out this post by saying it's been awhile since my last post. Been busy with a new job and haven't been on EvE as much lately. Less time in EvE means less things to write about. With that out of the way let's dive into what I've been doing.

The alliance moved into a wormhole a couple months ago to start a Tech III building campaign. So fat it's been a rousing success. The alliance warchest is looking great. Individuals are getting ISK and we've had some nice fights.

Now this has been intended to be a temporary move until we move to our next stage in our long term plan. However, the ISK faucet is addicting and honestly I'd forgotten how much I love living in j-space. I'm thinking this might be the best place for a small to medium sized alliance to live. It rewards coordination but the slave is so compartmentalized that you aren't living in fear of getting farmed constantly by some null-sec bloc. There is that upper limit of what people can easily bring against you and I think that works on our favor.

I don't know what the long term will bring but right now I'm loving getting that money.

Nice Guy is Nice

So, EVE gets the (at times well deserved) reputation of a hive of scum and villainy in the MMO universe. But sometimes quite the opposite happens. This is a story of one of those times.

So, the alliance decided to move on into a wormhole. At first the idea was to find a base we could keep occupied with some characters and use it to do weekend ops. Go in, run some sites, get ISK. Maybe a little PvP on the side. However, the moment we found the WH we wanted we got wardecced. Again.

We decided against fighting another pointless hi-sec war against yet another griefer alliance. Instead we moved into the WH with most everyone and started living there full time. Well, I decided that living in a WH AND maintaining my K-space POSes was going to be too much work. I had done that before when I lived in the C1 a few months back.

So, I started dismantling my low-sec reaction POSes. On the 3rd POS, which was my staging POS for my Rorqual for low-sec mining ops, I got distracted after starting the unanchoring process on the tower and forgot about it.

Fast-forward a few days. I get an email from a random character saying he found my unachoring tower and had taken it. I was thinking we has going to be trying to get some ISK for finding it and selling it back to me. Turns out he was just being nice and held onto it to keep it safe. He contracted it back to me free of charge and just asked if he and his corp could get blue standings. They are apparently a small-ish indie corp that does a bit of low-sec content in our area. I agree to the standings and send a bit of ISK his way as a thanks.

In a game where there is no reason to not steal whatever isn't nailed down this guy decided to take the higher road and do a bit of space kindness.

The ganks and betrayals in EVE get the headlines but stories like this happen all the time too. So, keep fighting the good fight and fly safe out there!

What does it mean to own space?

So, with the upcoming sov changes due to release this summer there will be a lot of people looking to own a bit of space in null-sec. Whether they will be successful or not remains to be seen. This and a conversation I had got me thinking about what "owning" space means.

I'll warn you that I haven't figured it all out and the following is just the start of my thoughts.

In EvE you can mechanically own a system by claiming sov. However, that does not mean you really own it. You could be there only by the grace of some greater power whether by renting it or simply because they want you as a buffer or as content for their members.

On the other hand, you CAN own space even where there is no mechanical way to do so. Wormhole groups certainly don't let a lack of sov mechanic stop them from claiming wormholes as their own. Low sec groups and NPC null groups can dominate large portions of space even though they nominally under the control of NPC factions.

I would say ownership of space comes down to being able to use the space as you see fit AND having the power to protect that ability. Other people may live there but it is by your grace and they could be ejected if that is what you desire. This could take many forms. It could be the industrial alliance that wants to build and mine. It could be the safe haven for a pirate corp to rat and run sites to fund their PvP habit. It could be building a mighty POCO empire for passive income.

I will also point out that not everyone wants to own space and it isn't necessary to really do much of anything in the game. You can raid other people's space for minerals or sites. Or raid it for content by getting fights from them. You can do this as a nomad or being settled in an NPC station. You could have the ability to control the space but would rather just let people come and go as they please.

So, in the end, I think that "owning" space might be as much of a mindset as it is anything you can do in game.

Playing with Big Ships

Well, I took my first step into owning capitals and bought a Rorqual today. Now, I have had an Orca for a long time but is only nominally a capital ship. I got a Providence freighter a few months back but those things can go through hi-sec. This time I got a honest to goodness, can't go into hi-sec, uses a jump drive, Capital.

Now, the tricky thing with capitals is that the ones for purchase are in Low or Null. And they may be not where you want them to be. Which means taking a series of cyno jumps to where you want them. And that has to be in Low or Null. Where people can kill you. This made me nervous. I just spent a couple billion and I have never done anything involving cynos.

So, I did what I always do. Research it. Read guide after guide. Checked out contracts as well as sell orders in every nearby region. Checked DotLan to plan potential routes. Looked up the docking radii of all the stations on my proposed route. The activity levels. Finally, I pulled the trigger and found one at a reasonable price just 3 cyno jumps away from where I wanted it be. Waited for quiet moments and made the three jumps.

So, what am I getting for my 2 billion and change investment? Well, I'll be able to provide jump clones to alliance mates and other friends. Why grind standings when you can make those clones with a mere multi-billion ISK ship? I should also be able to provide sweet sweet mining boosts for alliance mining ops if we ever start them again.

But the main reason?

Because it looks cool and I've wanted one ever since I started playing eve and was in my first mining and industrial ships. So, I can mark that goal off my list. Oh and it transforms and that should be reason enough.

So, in my tradition of naming such vessels after horribly doomed industrial space ships from media (my Orca is the Nostromo), I present to you the Ishimura:

What Sec Are You?

We have a lot of divisions in EVE. Are you a carebear? Are you a pirate? Where do you live? I want to give a shoutout to those pilots that defy categorization.

Hello, I'm Orson Brawl and I'm a high sec, low sec and wormhole player. I do industry, trade, tech II manufacturing, exploration, incursions, small gang and solo PvP. I dip my hands in everything. I log on each day and decide what part of this huge universe I want to explore. I have chores and I have labors of love. I bear it up sometimes and my blood urges to go out and blow up ships sometimes. I play for stories. What did I do? What have I learned? I research enemies and potential allies. I EFT warrior. I go out and explode. I build relationships and I shoot people in the face. I blob and I get blobbed. I make ISK and lose ships. I forge my own path and join others. I lead and I follow. Most of all I have fun, make friends and write stories.

If you identify with any of this. You're normal.

Don't accept other people's ideas of what EVE is. Make your own path. Your own fun. Your own game.

If you see me in space, give me a "o7" or shoot me. Either way, we create content. We create memories. We create the reasons why we stay in this crazy game.

Let's go out and create OUR game.

The post where I ramble on...

I really ought to write more. It's one of those little things that when you get out of the habit it's harder to get back into it. Part of it was me being less disciplined then I should be and part because my life in New Eden the past few weeks has been less exciting than usual.

Both issues are in my control though.

So, what have I been doing lately my dear reader may ask. The quick answer is moving. Moving in Eve is a lot like moving in real life. You pack up your belongs that you have likely strewn across an entire region (or two) and consolidate them. Then you figure some way of getting those items from point A to point B. Typically in something big and slow and expensive like a freighter (the in-game equivalent of a U-Haul). Then you spend hours taking trips back and forth. It feels less like a game and more like a job. That's immersive game-play for you...

But being back in green (Gallente) space has been worth it. Although, I am missing Khanid. It was charming in a rundown, trailer park sort of way. We had our little low sec pit we lived in and got to troll around in HED-GP. Not terrible ways to spend a lazy evening. This problem is we out-reached our grasp and poked the wrong pirate corp which happened to be NC. pets/allies. We can hold our own but not when one of the big null-sec corps decides to start taking down POSes. So, with the trailer park on fire we get out before the coming tornado flattened our remaining assets.

So, bring back to being in control. Writing more is simply about sitting down and doing it. But, how does one make a life in space more interesting? Well, stop waiting for content and go make some. We haven't been doing our usual PvP roams so I decided to fit up a scram-kite incursus and head down to FW space with the intent of making ships explode. Turns out the exploding ship was mine this time but I learned some things and had a nice chat in local afterwards. All in all I call that a win.

Or at least a draw...

Trials and Tribulations of a Hi-Sec War

Let me start off by saying this post isn't about complaining. It's not about being griefed or not being able to EVE the way I want. This is about what I don't understand about the nature of Hi-Sec PvP.

As a little background, my corp has recently joined an alliance of like minded people. This alliance also enjoys doing a bit of white knighting and fighting those who prey on those that cannot fight. So, we decided to wardecc a fairly major Hi-Sec PvP alliance. We knew it would be a tough fight but the idea of fighting the good fight and maybe bloodying the nose of a "grief corp" is an appealing one. Being the good guy in EvE is hard and often times unrewarding in game but can be rather rewarding in an out of game sense.

Now to the part I don't understand. Why do people engage in the style of play on a regular basis. Why do so many people belong to the alliance we wardecced? Nearly every fight has been on a station and so every fight has involved playing station games. Our opponents are much better at this than we are and it shows but that isn't what I am getting at.

If you are a "PvP" player, why would you want to play station games? The end result tends to be both parties doing pretty much no fighting. Our opponents undock and if they don't have a 100% chance of winning they dock up as soon as we fire. It's certainly the smart thing. Our opponents also tend to fly rather effective but expensive ships. Better ships are very good but the risk of losing one is not to be discounted. Unless, of course you know you can tank the incoming damage for a minute to de-aggress and dock back up.

So, showing up in force hasn't gotten us fights as they will just dock up until we leave. Baiting them out with single ship hasn't worked since as soon as they see the local spike of the rest of the fleet coming in from a nearby system they de-agress and they dock up. Our losses haven't really been from actual PvP. They've been largely due to people DCing during fights and a couple people being silly trying to move around alone without scouts during wartime. Other than the one pitched battle we were able to get outside of dodixie our combat losses have been largely tackle.

So, here is the part I don't understand. Why play as a "PvPer" if you are not looking for fights but rather only kills. I support people doing what they think is fun but I just can't wrap my head around what is fun regarding the Hi-Sec PvP playstyle. It doesn't seem to lead to anything other than easy kills or ship spinning when a challenge actually comes along.

That just doesn't seem like engaging gameplay to me.